CMC CFD demo and live accounts

[adamim1]

Hi,
I've signed up for a demo account trading CFds. At the moment I'm going to just practice and focus on two markets, gold and silver. I follow these markets closely and know what makes it move.

Practicing since monday I have managed to profit 5k mucking around. Highly leveraged, but nothing that I'm not prepared to lose. What I was planning to do is buy in a highly leveraged position after a month of practicing some strategies and ride out the silver/golds yearly uptrend in the 4th quarter.

However I hear that the demo accounts are different to the live account and making money is not as easy as the demo account. Just want to hear from some cmc traders if this is true or not.

Regards

 

[skc]

Hi,
I've signed up for a demo account trading CFds. At the moment I'm going to just practice and focus on two markets, gold and silver. I follow these markets closely and know what makes it move.

Practicing since monday I have managed to profit 5k mucking around. Highly leveraged, but nothing that I'm not prepared to lose. What I was planning to do is buy in a highly leveraged position after a month of practicing some strategies and ride out the silver/golds yearly uptrend in the 4th quarter.

However I hear that the demo accounts are different to the live account and making money is not as easy as the demo account. Just want to hear from some cmc traders if this is true or not.

Regards

Demo account can gives you better fills than real account if you are trading large volume, fast clicking action or during volatile times (e.g. news release). It is no secret that all CFD providers widen their spread and increase their process times during such events. If your trading since Monday is centred around those (and let's not forget we have seen the market at its volatile best since Monday) then you may have issues when it comes to real account. CMC is well known for their re-quotes from memory and you might just be chasing price down/up while you keep getting re-re-re-re-quote.

But your actual problem probably isn't with the limitations of the demo account. The mindset of real money vs paper money would be very different. You think you will have the courage to hold in down turns and the patience to hold when you are in profits, but it is much harder than it looks when you are just paper trading. Esp you are leveraging your position, and from the sounds of it, without stops or risk management approach.

Remember it is hard to get the market right but it is actually harder still to make money even if you are right.

 

[adamim1]

Demo account can gives you better fills than real account if you are trading large volume, fast clicking action or during volatile times (e.g. news release). It is no secret that all CFD providers widen their spread and increase their process times during such events. If your trading since Monday is centred around those (and let's not forget we have seen the market at its volatile best since Monday) then you may have issues when it comes to real account. CMC is well known for their re-quotes from memory and you might just be chasing price down/up while you keep getting re-re-re-re-quote.

But your actual problem probably isn't with the limitations of the demo account. The mindset of real money vs paper money would be very different. You think you will have the courage to hold in down turns and the patience to hold when you are in profits, but it is much harder than it looks when you are just paper trading. Esp you are leveraging your position, and from the sounds of it, without stops or risk management approach.

Remember it is hard to get the market right but it is actually harder still to make money even if you are right.

Thanks for your reply.

I've also heard that regarding CMC, I've heard Macquarie Prime is a better service. Would you recommend them?

Yes I understand that it is much harder to trade real money then paper money purely from the fear aspect, however one of the reasons of trading a demo account was to try a build up confidence in the way I was trading. My line of thinking was that if I could make money consistently using the same strategy in the demo account then I would do exactly the same thing with real money - however putting that into effect will be much harder.

After I've finished with the Demo account I will use a small amount in the live account to get a feel for it. If nothing works in the live account as it does in the demo account then there will only be a small loss.

I am using stops however they're not tight stops. I was using tight stops on my first day but my stops kept getting hit due to the volatility in silver which was making me lose money (small amounts but they were adding up). So later on I decided increasing my risk money wise (e.g. $2000-$8000 depending on the leverage) but putting the stops under or near solid long term support areas, so although my risk in money was increased the chances of it hitting my stop were very low and would allow me to wait out the low. This is the strategy I've been using the last4 days.

Last night I put in a 5000 ounce contract size purchase of Silver CFD's and did well over night. I sold early this morning at 5 am and managed a 4.3k profit, bringing the weeks total to just over 9k. To me this sounds too good/easy and that it will be much harder to be consistent over time on a live account with real money. So I guess i'll just keep plugging along on this demo account and see if I can be consistent with this strategy.

 

[skc]

Thanks for your reply.

I've also heard that regarding CMC, I've heard Macquarie Prime is a better service. Would you recommend them?

Yes I understand that it is much harder to trade real money then paper money purely from the fear aspect, however one of the reasons of trading a demo account was to try a build up confidence in the way I was trading. My line of thinking was that if I could make money consistently using the same strategy in the demo account then I would do exactly the same thing with real money - however putting that into effect will be much harder.

After I've finished with the Demo account I will use a small amount in the live account to get a feel for it. If nothing works in the live account as it does in the demo account then there will only be a small loss.

I am using stops however they're not tight stops. I was using tight stops on my first day but my stops kept getting hit due to the volatility in silver which was making me lose money (small amounts but they were adding up). So later on I decided increasing my risk money wise (e.g. $2000-$8000 depending on the leverage) but putting the stops under or near solid long term support areas, so although my risk in money was increased the chances of it hitting my stop were very low and would allow me to wait out the low. This is the strategy I've been using the last4 days.

Last night I put in a 5000 ounce contract size purchase of Silver CFD's and did well over night. I sold early this morning at 5 am and managed a 4.3k profit, bringing the weeks total to just over 9k. To me this sounds too good/easy and that it will be much harder to be consistent over time on a live account with real money. So I guess i'll just keep plugging along on this demo account and see if I can be consistent with this strategy.

I don't know about Prime. Like I said the concern with CMC relates to quick entries and speed of execution around critical times. If you hold longer periods you are less affected accordingly.

Good luck with testing your strategy. If you want to discuss strategy go to the gold thread and get some ideas/feedback there. I don't trade gold so can't tell you anything.

I don't know anything about your account size etc but my guess is you are trading too big for real money and you will either blow up or bleed to death. Remember that many people blow their first CFD account (and for some, their 2nd, 3rd and so forth).

 

[pixel]

I have had a CMC account for about ten years, and while there have been some phases where things could've been faster, I can't complain about unreasonable requotes or bad spreads.

Recently I've changed over from MarketMaker to their new software platform - and now I do have problems: It's starting up alright, and I get all the functions, accounts are OK, and live data is filling watchlists and charts.
But: every so often, I'm logged off and required to login again. That has never been the case with MarketMaker.
It happens more frequently on a Windows XP machine, at very irregular intervals; it can keep running for anything from minutes to as long as half an hour. When I changed to the Windows 7 64-bit PC, it ran OK for longer, but eventually bombed out as well.

I tried to contact the Live Help, but that gives me the message Live Help is currently unavailable.

Has anybody tried the new cmctracker platform? And have you had similar problems?
quite frustrating...

 

[pixel]

well - they do reply to complaints. But if this is supposed to be helpful:

unfortunately there is no preferred idle/inactive time frame set up in the system at this stage. It will log you out for security reason.
Please try to think of using different web browsers, if possible, or lower the security level of the web browser.
[ ...]
You may be in the queue of the live help. It should have nothing to do with your PC or your trading platform.
Please feel free to test it again once you have chance.

 

[jeromejf]

I know this thread is a bit old , but just my recent experience from joining demo account. At first i did make heaps of profit 10 k from Au shares CFd tading in 1st week and this continued on with a few losses too ,, i was in front. Then i decided to trade with realistic amounts that i could eventually be trading and with only blue chips whihc was going to be my strategy and suddenly things are not lookign as rosy. Though i am getting wiining trades teh lossing trades are also eating into profits with comission charges and holding costs.
so when real its not easy, so to speak . but i will let you know how i go.
Recently IG upped thier CFD margins for blue chips from 5% to 20% so cmc is looking more attractive for CFD trading